Ford Focus RS Touches Down In Jay Leno’s Garage: Video

A few years ago, Ford’s Focus came in two different flavors: the lame duck version we received here in the U.S., and the more refined and much more powerful version (in certain trims) sold everywhere else.

Thankfully, with the Blue Oval’s ‘One Ford’ policy firmly in place, we’re finally getting the Focus the rest of the world enjoys, including the 252-horsepower Focus ST variant, which we think is simply brilliant.

However, the previous-generation Focus that we missed out on had one additional performance variant, the Focus RS, which put out 300 horsepower in standard trim and as much as 345 horsepower in limited edition Focus RS500 trim.

Ford is working on a successor to that original car, though any new version is expected to be less extreme. For starters, it’s likely to come with a five-door body instead of the original three-door design. And in addition, performance engineer Jost Capito, the man responsible for the original Focus RS as well as vehicles like the F-150 SVT Raptor and new Fiesta ST, has ditched Ford to work for Volkswagen.

How good was that original Focus RS? Jay Leno recently found out as a version of the car, albeit a modified example with 420 horsepower on tap, recently touched down in his famous garage. It was brought into the country by the people at Galpin Motors, the world’s biggest Ford dealer, under a rule similar to the ‘Show and Display’ laws.

As mentioned, this was a modified version, tuned by British firm Montune. It still featured the stock car’s punchy five-cylinder turbo, front-wheel-drive layout and trick RevoKnuckle suspension and Quaife differential, however, with Leno found to be very impressive.